The disclosed system and method relate to Email campaigns wherein an enterprise provides Emails to a list of subscribers and more particularly wherein access to information regarding subscribers is controlled within the enterprise.
Many corporations, associations, groups, franchisors and other entities, referred to herein generally as enterprises, send Emails to persons who have expressed an interest in receiving Emails from such enterprises. Those persons to whom Emails are sent by entities are referred to as subscribes and may be of the type that have opted into an Email campaign from the enterprise or who have not indicated a desire to opt out of an Email campaign of the enterprise. Often such enterprises collect substantial information regarding subscribers to their Email campaigns.
Enterprises typically include different business units who have either a desire, or a need, for access to at least some information regarding the subscribers to the Email campaigns of the enterprise. Not all business units of an enterprise have the same need, desire or entitlement to access information regarding any individual subscriber. For instance, a business unit that has developed a customer relationship and obtained permission to send Emails from an Email campaign to a subscriber would have a different level of need, desire or entitlement to access information regarding that subscriber than another business unit within the enterprise that has had no past dealings and is unlikely to have future dealings with the subscriber.
Enterprises wishing to control access to subscriber information may be enterprises that wish to protect their brand while engaging in distributed messaging, wish to ensure enterprise wide regulatory compliance and/or wish to protect multiple brands of the enterprise. Distributed messaging is often engaged in by a parent corporation with multiple subsidiaries, divisions, departments etc. or by a franchisor with multiple franchisees.
Enterprises engaging in Email campaigns would appreciate a system and method that allows the enterprise to control their brand while enabling a diverse user base access by messaging technologies.
The disclosed system and method permit an enterprise having business units that engage in Email campaigns to subscribers to control access to subscriber information to the business units.
According to one embodiment of a system for controlling access within an enterprise to information associated with recipients of an electronic message campaign of the enterprise sent to a plurality of recipient devices wherein the enterprise includes hierarchically structured Business Units having an enterprise level Business Unit at the highest level and a plurality of second level Business Units and an enterprise system communicatively coupled to a network and including an enterprise level device communicatively coupled to a plurality of second level devices, the system comprises a server and an electronic message engine. The server is communicatively coupled to the enterprise system and the plurality of recipient devices via the network. The server is configured to assign an enterprise account to the enterprise system and generate a user interface presented to the enterprise level device via the network upon validating the enterprise account. The interface is configured to allow a user of the enterprise level device to maintain a recipient list for all recipients of electronic messages from any enterprise Business Unit which recipient list includes information regarding each recipient. The interface is configured to allow the enterprise level device to communicate selected portions of the recipient list to each of the plurality of second level devices and to send electronic messages via the network to the plurality of recipients. The electronic message engine is communicatively coupled via the server and the network to the enterprise system and is configured to generate electronic messages within a message campaign for sending to recipients identified by each of the second level devices from the selected portions of the recipient list communicated by the enterprise level device to each second level device.
According to one embodiment of a method for controlling access within an enterprise to information associated with recipients of an electronic message campaign of the enterprise sent to a plurality of recipient devices wherein the enterprise includes hierarchically structured Business Units having an enterprise level Business Unit at the highest level and a plurality of second level Business Units and an enterprise system communicatively coupled to a network and including an enterprise level device communicatively coupled to a plurality of second level devices. The method comprises the steps of assigning an enterprise account to the enterprise system utilizing a server; validating the enterprise account utilizing the server; generating with the server a user interface presented to the enterprise level device via the network upon validating the enterprise account, the interface being configured to allow a user of the enterprise level device to maintain a recipient list for all recipients of electronic messages from any enterprise Business Unit which recipient list includes information regarding each recipient and configured to allow the enterprise level device to communicate selected portions of the recipient list to each of the plurality of second level devices and to send electronic messages via the network to the plurality of recipients; and generating electronic messages within a message campaign for sending to recipients identified by each of the second level devices from the selected portions of the recipient list communicated by the enterprise level device to each second level device.
One embodiment of the disclosed system and method allows an enterprise to manage subscribers in a more efficient manner especially when the electronic message or email service provider (“ESP”) is not the database of record for unsubscribe requests. The disclosed system and method allows enterprises to define and import into opt-out lists.
One embodiment of the disclosed system and method allows sharing of content between different levels of an enterprise organized in a tiered structure.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.